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 A tentative blog to test the temperature. |
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Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end. So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.     |
| On Being First Iām not stupid enough to believe that a phenomenon noticed by me in the course of a fairly long life is valid enough to be applied in general, but there is one observation that comes close to being accepted as an immutable law of the universe. This has nothing to do with the length of sentences but is rather about so unlikely a subject as the first born. It is my contention that the first born child is always the best one. The reason for this must be assumed to be the need for the parents of said child to be persuaded to have another one. And then, should the second child turn out to be awful, there is always the reasoning that it was probably an aberration and the third would indubitably be as good as the first. Fat chance of that, of course. The third is really the one that proves the theory - the first is always the best. I began life as an adult with no experience of children and a resulting wariness regarding them. The first one I came to know was the child of a good friend and she was positively angelic. Watching the perfect behaviour of this paragon, I was persuaded that it might not be so bad an idea to begin this process of procreation. My wife was not averse to the possibility anyway and, in due course, my son Matthew was born. He proved every bit as good as my friendās daughter. At which point you are assuming that we ventured upon the experiment further by having more kids. I am not so gullible. The possibility raised by the existence of two well-behaved and likable first borns was that it could be the universeās strategy to ensure the continuance of humanity in ever-increasing numbers. This was not lost on me and I decided that signing on for more experiments was not advisable. We should wait to see how this first one turned out. Nearly twenty years later, child number one was still remarkably sensible and balanced. He was not a paragon but seemed without serious flaws and drawbacks. In a moment of bravado, I agreed to go for an increase in the child area and two more came along after the usual waiting period. They were not awful. But did they attain the heights of that first one? Well, in some ways they excelled but, like all humans, they had their foibles. The theory was true in essence, apparently. And so we come to the point of this piece. That is the young child that has appeared in our household courtesy of Andreaās daughter. We have functioned as baby sitters for at least half of this young fellerās life so far and have come to know him very well as a result. And he is phenomenal. Of all the first borns I have known, he is the best. Three years old and never a problem, unbelievably quick and intelligent, he has taught himself to read and regularly surprises us by announcing things that he could only have figured out if he understands writing. He is the final proof of my dubious theory and the reason I now mention it. There are plenty of caveats against accepting the theory, I know, and I must warn again about the trap it sets for the unwary. But itās a harmless little thing if not acted upon. Just take it as a whimsical notion and you should be safe enough. Word count: 584 |
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...and the first born grandchild on both sides...
